[3] The song begins with Young singing the line "tonight's the night" eight times in a voice that music critic Nigel Williamson describes as sounding "fragile, vulnerable and close to panic.
[6] The lyrics relate how late at night Berry used to play Young's guitar and sing in "a shaky voice that was real as the day was long.
[9] The editors of Rolling Stone described Young and the band as being in "rough shape – drunk, off-key, enraged, wracked by grief and tequila.
[10] McDonough describes it as "just an offhand uncertain tinkling of the ivories, but so ominous, so full of dread," saying that "it sets the tome for the onslaught to come [on the album]—out-of-tune singing, bum notes, mike hits, and some of the best, most beautiful music ever.
[6] Rogan says that "you can sense the drama as [Young] builds up to the close of the first verse when he remembers picking up the phone to learn of his friends' drug related death.
"[9] In a contemporary review, Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh said that Young "shouts, threats, begs, moans and curses, telling the story of roadie Bruce Berry, who ODed 'out on the mainline.
"[12] Uncut contributor Jon Dale commented on "the 'crude coherence' of the playing, the way everyone falls in and out of place at the most apposite times, the cracks in Young's voice marshaled for poignancy, for amplification of the loose narrative arc.
[7] He says that "with a vocal that plays more like an anguished howl, he sounds like he is within seconds of becoming completely emotionally unglued," adding that it is one of the most brutally honest soul-baring in rock 'n' roll.